HEALTH, SAFETY & WELLBEING ALERTING TO THEDANGER
Can real-time asbestos detection reduce deaths and increase the safety of workforces whilst adding value and increasing efficiency in facilities management, asks Alert Technology.
On 15 January 2024, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched its ‘Asbestos – Your Duty’ campaign, aimed at improving the understanding of what the legal duty to manage asbestos involves. This new campaign follows a year in which asbestos yet again hit the headlines for a multitude of reasons. The Times’ ‘Act Now on Asbestos’ campaign has been a prominent voice focussing on exposure in schools. Also recently published was ‘The First Annual Data Analysis Report into Asbestos in UK Buildings’ jointly produced by the Asbestos Testing and Consultancy Association and the National Organisation of Asbestos Consultants.
Survey data was collected over a six-month period from October 2021 to March 2022. The data showed:
• Of the 128,761 buildings inspected, 100,660 (78%) were found to contain asbestos.
• Within those 100,660 buildings, 710,433 items of asbestos were found.
• Out of the 710,433 items of asbestos, 507,612 (71%) were recorded as having some level of damage.
• Of the 507,612 damaged items, 120,629 (24%) would be classed as 'licensable' work and require a specialist contractor.
The report concluded that a high proportion of asbestos materials in UK buildings presented a potential risk to public health, and that asbestos management was failing in a significant proportion of those premises.
Asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999, asbestos legislation has not changed significantly since 2012 and the core technology and data we use to manage asbestos risk has not changed for far longer. With this lack of change, you would think it safe to assume that as a nation we have the risk from asbestos under control, yet, the UK has the highest rate of mesothelioma in the world and asbestos remains the UK’s greatest cause of work-related deaths with 5,000 per year.
Sarah Albon, HSE’s Chief Executive said: “To keep people safe from the harms of asbestos, a culture of safely managing asbestos is needed in our building industry and among those responsible for buildings.
“Together, we must protect people in the workplace and reduce future work-related ill health.”
With the above in mind, should those in positions of responsibility look simply to comply with legislation, or should we be looking to do more than just meet the requirements. If new technology, new data and therefore new information is now available, the question should be, how can we use this to keep people safe!
42 | TOMORROW’S FM
When we look at the ever-evolving world of science and technology, unfortunately the management of asbestos risk is one area that has largely been left behind. The same core science and technology is used as standard today that has been for the previous 20 years, if not more.
There are however innovations that are providing more information than has even been available.
Real-time asbestos detection
and monitoring The world’s first and only real-time asbestos detection and monitoring device is now available. Through the utilisation of light scattering and the magnetic re-orientation of fibres the Alert PRO is able to provide real-time alarms when the presence of asbestos is detected. The units can continuously monitor airborne fibre levels and provide a time-stamped dataset that enables users to continually review fibre and particle levels during live sampling.
The ability to review fibre levels in 10 second intervals means that even short-term and sporadic activities and processes which may release asbestos can be identified, something that up to now has been extremely difficult to achieve.
Traditionally air monitoring has provided a singular concentration-based result at the end of the sampling session, this does not enable the identification of short
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70
